How young is too young to teach a child?

[Sarah5string]

My daughter will be 3 next month and has been showing an interest in my basses.. wanting to hold and 'play' them.. and I was considering getting her a child sized bass and get her started learning... but is she too young??

[James_E]

No. It's not too young to have her start playing around and making sounds with it. I think it is too young for formal training though... unless she is different than most kids and can focus on something like that at that young age.

I've got a kids-size guitar in the house, electronic drums etc. and I've always let the kids just play away on them. They find out how fun it is, get interested etc. My 7 year old takes drum lessons now, the younger one (turning 6 soon) will start some lessons soon (not sure which instrument.)

[Joeykun]

Originally Posted by Sarah5string

My daughter will be 3 next month and has been showing an interest in my basses.. wanting to hold and 'play' them.. and I was considering getting her a child sized bass and get her started learning... but is she too young??

Never too young. My Boys (4 & 2) love playing my basses. They smack the strings around. However, my oldest seems to have a good sense of rythym. When he plays my bass sometimes it sounds good! I let them play all the time so the intrest keeps up. I would suggest the same for your daughter. Music is a great thing for children to take a part in. It teaches discipline and some mathmatics as well!

Now, if I can just get him off the idea that he wants to play drums!

[DocBop]

Look how young the Suzuki schools start kids on violin and other instruments. The younger they are they don't have the beliefs things are hard or are influenced by others so they are open to everything. They start teaching reading and correct pitch and so on as music games so kids are having funny learning stuff they would talk themselves into thinking that's hard later in life.

[CrashBang]

My nephew is turning 3 in 2 months and he already has a Gibson flying V, an ashika drum, a harmonica, microphone, amps and tamborine. Since he could stand I have encoraged him to strum (he actually pulled at) the strings on my bass and guitar. He would sing the alphabet into his microphone and would eventually ask me to put on AC/DC videos so he could sing and I could play the guitar. He knew Angus played guitar for AC/DC and that ELVIS was the king before he was 2 1/2.
It's never to early.
Also he loves to go to GC with me and sit at the drum kits and play the keyboards.

[fullrangebass]

Children are always trying to learn their environment and their limits. As long as they feel it's a game they will go ahead and explore the universe of sounds

[meev992]

If only my parents put me on an instrument when I was 3.

[onlyclave]

Go consult your local piano teacher on when kids should start lessons. Most will tell you that as soon as the kid can focus for 10 minutes at a time then they are ready for formal lessons.

A child that is not yet 3 is no where near ready for lessons. You are wasting a teachers time and probably just amusing the kid for a short time with something that could just as well be substituted with Barney and she wouldn't know the difference.

IMHO you should put her into dance lessons. Yes, dance lessons until she is 5 or 6. It builds excellent time, teaches her classroom skills and she will find it more fun than bass lessons at this age.

You guys don't remember it but your brains were wired significantly differently when you were 3 and you absorbed and memorized every single thing that you heard/saw but didn't have the computer processing power available yet to make any real sense of it.

Go ahead and post your counter arguments, but the truth is she's too young.

[hunta]

I would teach your kid ear training skills and piano as early as possible, regardless of what instrument she seems interested in. Start singing those triads and scales! The bass can be physically challenging/impossible for a little kid, but ear training will help with bass or any other instrument and the earlier you do it the better.

[Sarah5string]

For the record I wasn't considering formal lessons.. just trying to teach her how to actually play rather than just hitting the thing.. lol

[Joeykun]

Originally Posted by onlyclave

Go consult your local piano teacher on when kids should start lessons. Most will tell you that as soon as the kid can focus for 10 minutes at a time then they are ready for formal lessons.

A child that is not yet 3 is no where near ready for lessons. You are wasting a teachers time and probably just amusing the kid for a short time with something that could just as well be substituted with Barney and she wouldn't know the difference.

IMHO you should put her into dance lessons. Yes, dance lessons until she is 5 or 6. It builds excellent time, teaches her classroom skills and she will find it more fun than bass lessons at this age.

You guys don't remember it but your brains were wired significantly differently when you were 3 and you absorbed and memorized every single thing that you heard/saw but didn't have the computer processing power available yet to make any real sense of it.

Go ahead and post your counter arguments, but the truth is she's too young.

I agree on the lessons part. But, I suggested to keep them involved with an instrument and music in general.

A very good friend of mine started playing drums at 3. His parents bought him a drum set and encouraged him to play. He started lessons at age 5 and played in the school bands throughout his childhood. Our school system had a great music program.

Today he is a nationally known artist. He wrote 2 books on drum techniques as well as instructional videos. And, has toured the world with major artists.

I'm not saying every child that takes up an instrument early in life will have the same result. I am making a point that it is never too young to take interest in music!

[OtterOnBass]

I'm learning about this in school now. 3-5 is an age of massive amounts of learning (in vocabulary alone, they learn tons of new words every week-even if they aren't speaking them). They aren't able to settle down and study yet, but a little bit goes a long way at this age. Leave them watching Univision and they'll be speaking Spanish when you get back.

You'll need to explain everything step-by-step in excrutiating detail. Like 'hold the bass with your left hand, relax your hand until it's open, but still supporting the bass, squeeze one finger on a string while still holding the bass...'

I've heard from a number of teachers that most kids entering school haven't used crayons or scissors before. Teach her those too, especially scissors since it's a cross-body skill that uses both sides at once. 'hold the scissors near your body, move the paper with your other hand while keeping your hand away from the scissors, cut slowly'

[bassteban]

I held my bass up to my son at 6 mos, & he whacked it gleefully. At 18 mos we took him to Kindermusik, a very basic music program for tiny ones. He liked it but by 3 yrs he wouldn't sit still through 'class'. I thought it was a bust but he rips on violin now(8 yrs old, playing for 6 mos).
It's likely been said, but my feelings are that it's good to expose young ones to all sorts of music & art, and encourage them but not require much, if anything, in the way of apparent results. They soak in whatever's around them, so give 'em good stuff.

[dlloyd]

Originally Posted by Sarah5string

My daughter will be 3 next month and has been showing an interest in my basses.. wanting to hold and 'play' them.. and I was considering getting her a child sized bass and get her started learning... but is she too young??

She is not too young to have a bass and to start having fun with it. She's too young to go to lessons though (IMHO)

My son started showing interest in music very young, and was adamant by the time he was three that he wanted to play drums. We bought him a small toy drum kit, which he pretty much destroyed pretty quickly, and he got a better kit (still in the realms of toy) the following Christmas. He's now coming up to six years old and has just started lessons, and we've bought him a real kit.

Any earlier would have been too early due to physical limitations (ie. reaching pedals etc), but the drum teacher we go to says he's successfully taught younger kids snare rudiments.

My concern would be where you would find a bass that's small enough. Mind you....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA6sq...eature=related

[CrashClint]

I do not think any child is too young to start teaching. I think it comes down to are we able to start teaching a young child. You pretty much have to throw your own expectations out the door. If you are going to try to teach a child at a young age, it has to be fun and lots of love and encouragement.

My son was exposed to music before he was born, we used to play Mozart through headphones and put them on my wife's stomach. When my son was able to sit on his own, we bought a cheap keyboard for him to play with, but we never made him sit in front of it and play with it. As he got older, I tried to get him to play bass, but he went to the dark side.

Yeah, he picked up the guitar where did I go wrong? Actually, it is kind of fun just to sit around and jam with him and his friends. According to them, I can rock for an old man. Wow, an old man at the age of 45.

[McHack]

Teach is relative... 3 seems young, to really understand what they're doing. But, ya never know.

I say EXPOSE them to music as soon as you can, & then watch & see if they take to it. Let them show you, if they're interested.

[GreggBummer]

My experience with my seven year old daughter has been that she goes in fits and starts with her instrument. She takes drum lessons at school. After she learned the rudiments, and displayed boardem with the practice pad, I picked up craigslist $200 special.

She plays on and off... she has the attention span of a seven year old. But she loves playing drums and practices when she feels like it. I don't push her. However, if I am in my "bassment" playing, then she wants to play drums with me.

Also, buying the drums was a bit selfish. If they don't work out for her then I will probably take some lessons myself. It can only make me a better bassguy.

Oh yeah, she seems really motivated after seeing someone play drums live. I take her to see bands playing the area parks, coffee shops, and so on. I keep her out of the bars.

Good luck... and your a good parent (and a good musician) for thinking this through.

[FuturePrimitive]

My oldest son got a cheapie Squier youth guitar for his 3rd birthday. He's been banging on my bass since he was only a few months old. He's been watching and singing/humming along to, the Rush R30 and Rio DVDs since he was 2. And he attended the R30 concert in utero in Toronto. He can't play anything of course and he's too young for lessons but he does know how to work the guitar (volume knob, how to turn on/off his little amp) and hold it correctly. It's a start anyway.

As for music exposure, the boys listen to what we listen to. We don't play any "kiddie" music in our house, they get the good stuff.

[Orangeclawhamme]

A guitar player/teacher that I met was going to start his four-year-old daughter on a mandolin with only the main four strings. Perfect size, I would think.

[Jazz Ad]

It entirely depends on the kid. Some 3 yo will be able to learn fine while others won't be able to do anything at 8 yo.